Friday, January 14, 2011

Poker pearl #54


Jon 'apestyles' Van Fleet has been one of poker's most successful online players. After the WSOP in 2009, however, his game took a nosedive. He was interviewed in the Dec. 29 issue of Card Player magazine (see scan above), and here's what he said.

It had gotten so bad I was nearly broke. Even worse, ... I was pushing 300 pounds. I told myself that I could be fat or broke, but not both. Since poker wasn't going very well, I decided to focus on what I could change, which was my lifestyle.

I started eating right and going to the gym, and, coincidentally, poker started to go well, too. It's amazing how the two go hand in hand.

Within six month I had lost 80 pounds and was on a $300,000 upswing. Poker is fun again and I have that desire to compete.

6 comments:

  1. Physical fitness and competing go together? Now why doesn't that surprise me. It's always struck me as odd that bridge events, even at the top where it is 'serious' revolves around dinner and drinks.

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  2. Congratulations to this chap. He did it right. It seems we really do have a problem with food in this country...we were talking about that the other night while watching TV. Almost every other ad had to do with food..."comfort" stuff - high calorie and fat content. Looks so good, how do you resist getting up and hitting the fridge?

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  3. @cathyc: Also, professional athletes spend a lot of time warming up before a competition. Why don't bridge players do the same? Why not play a few hands when you come back from dinner to get ready to play?

    @jacob: I'm reading (actually listening in my car, it's on a CD) to a book about places in the world where people routinely live to be 100 yrs old. They have one thing in common: diet! Little meat, lots of fresh fruits and veggies, etc. (There are other factors, too, but diet is a biggie.)

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  4. On a different note are u going to be in Tunica during the Cirrcuit event? I'll be there beginning of Feb

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  5. @J.T.: I'm not sure. Will check it out, probably play at least one event.

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